Exhibition

As a corrective to histories that define slavery and anti-Black racism as a largely Southern issue, Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North offers a new window onto Black representation in a region that is often overlooked in narratives of early African American history.

At Historic Deerfield, the exhibition will be presented through 97 remarkable works, including paintings, needlework, and photographs, that invite visitors to focus on figures who appear in – or are omitted from – early American images. The exhibition challenges conventional narratives that have minimized early Black histories in the North, revealing the complexities and contradictions of the region’s history between the late 1600s and early 1800s.  

A 300-page scholarly book with contributions from Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Jennifer Van Horn, and several authors, is available for purchase. Please learn more about the book here.  

The exhibition was originally co-curated by Emelie Gevalt, Curatorial Chair for Collections and Curator of Folk Art, AFAM; RL Watson, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies, Lake Forest College; and Sadé Ayorinde, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.